Woolworths' free-range chicken suppliers have now removed routine antibiotics from the feed of all their broiler chickens. Because they live in lower densities, free-range chickens are less susceptible to illness than their conventionally-reared counterparts.
Free-range chickens live in barns with access to outside areas. They have the space and opportunity to express normal chicken behaviour such as pecking, scratching and dust bathing. They have access to food and water, sunshine and shade, the outdoors and their protective shelters. All Woolworth's chickens are fed a grain-based diet that contains no animal by-products.
In line with good animal welfare practices, the Woolworths free-range chickens may be treated with antibiotics in the unlikely event of illness. In this case, the antibiotics are administered on the advice of a vet. Treated birds are carefully monitored to ensure that antibiotic residue levels conform to the legal allowable Maximum Residue Levels at all times.
All Woolworths chickens in the national stores come from South African suppliers who undertake to implement Woolworths protocols governing poultry production. Woolworths works very closely with their poultry suppliers to ensure that protocols are correctly implemented and suppliers are independently audited against these protocols.
Look out for the new free range logos in-store. The main logo confirms that these Woolworths products are certified free range and audited by an independent auditing company. The second logo on the free range chicken meat products informs customers that these are chickens whose diet was free of animal by-products and routine antibiotics.
More and more South Africans consumers are showing a preference for free-range and organic products. Indeed there's an increasing perception that food that has been sustainably produced by more natural farming methods, is food that you can trust. Woolworths forges ahead on its Good Food Journey, by offering consumers an ever wider choice of free-range and organic products.
Magna Carta for Woolworths
